Expert urges media to stimulate informed conversations around climate change    

Environmentalist, and climate expert has urged the media to use their influences to stimulate informed conversations and shape the narratives, as the nation experiences climate change impacts. 
 
Madam Afua Serwah Akoto Prempeh, the Principal Project Manager of Proforest, who gave the advice called on the nation to build and strengthen a more resilient infrastructure systems to mitigate climate change impacts. 
 
Proforest is a non-profit organization that works with companies, private sector, governments, NGOs and communities in various sectors to help deliver commitments to people, nature, and climate. 
 
Madam Prempeh was speaking at the opening session of the Second Biennial Media Forum on Natural Resources, Environment, Climate Change and Science (BiM-NECS Forum 2) in Kumasi. 
 
The Media Platform on Environment and Climate Change (MPEC), the Afro-Sino Centre of International Relations (ASCIR), and the Steminist Foundation Ghana organized the forum on the theme “Ecosystem restoration: The politics, the science, the human, and the economy”. 
 
It was attended by senior journalists, editors and other media practitioners, drawn from Bono, Bono East and Ashanti Regions. 
 
As the voice for the voiceless, Madam Prempeh said the collective role of the media in agenda setting the agenda shaping national discourses could not be overemphasized, urging the media to do more to amplify the voices of the marginalized and other minority groups on climate change. 
 
She said the media ought to remain committed to highlighting community experiences on climate change and help proffer solutions. 
 
She noted that the nation’s water bodies, forest and vegetative covers were seriously under threat due to climate change, saying climate change impact on the environment had a significant impact on the economy, food security and livelihoods of the people. 
 
That, she added, underscored the need for them to increase her risk of preparedness systems. 
 
Describing the Journalist as planet advocates, Professor Mercy Afua Adutwumwaa Derkyi, the Director in-Charge of Quality Assurance and Academic Planning, University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), urged the media to remain at the forefront in restoring and preserving the nation’s eco-system. 
 
She said effective collaboration was required to restore the ecosystem through robust afforestation and reforestation and landscape, saying the nation’s over-reliance on donor funding was unsustainable. 
 
“Restoration agenda is not a one man show, and we need an interdisciplinary approach to make gains”, she stated and called for all-inclusive partnership and collaboration among all stakeholders. 
 
In a brief history, Mrs Mary Ama Kudom-Agyemang, the Executive Director of MPEC said the BiM-NECS Forum was conceived in 2023 as a platform for media practitioners in Ghana and other parts of Africa to come together to reflect on, debate and share experiences on their role in the governance of NECS.